churchyard

• church-yard

From Middle English churchyard, chirch-ȝerd, chircheȝerd (also kirk-ȝerd, kirkeyard > English kirkyard), equivalent to church +‎ yard. Compare also Middle English kurk-garth, kyrkgarth, kirrkegærd, from Old Norse kirkjugarðr (“churchyard; graveyard”).

churchyard (plural churchyards)

The churchyard of Vepriai, Lithuania

1. A patch of land adjoining a church, often used as a graveyard.
   • 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 1, in The Dust of Conflict‎:

     They said nothing further, but tramped on in the growing darkness, past farm steadings, into the little village, through the silent churchyard where generations of the Pallisers lay, and up the beech avenue that led to Northrop Hall.

• (graveyard): see also Thesaurus:cemetery.
• kirkyard (Scotland)

• churchyard cough